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Monday, August 8, 2016

OLIVE OATMAN--A MARKED WOMAN

She is actress
Robin McLeavy who plays the character Eva Toole on the popular AMC series Hell on Wheels.

How and why does she have these facial tattoos?

ACTRESS ROBIN MCLEAVY

As a girl, the character Eva was
captured by a group of Yavapai Indians but they traded her to the Mojave.
During her captivity they tattooed her face. The tattoo means "three
blankets, two horses," indicating her worth.

OLIVE OATMAN FAIRCHILD

Her character is patterned after
a real Texas Woman, Olive Oatman Fairchild, who became an early resident of Sherman,
Texas.

Before she married and moved to Sherman, Olive had been an Indian captive.In 1851, Olive
Oatman’s family, headed by her father Royce Oatman, broke away from the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They were traveling through southeastern
California and western Arizona, looking for a place to settle. As newly
inducted Brewsterites—followers of Mormon rebel James C. Brewster—they’d been
advised that California was, in fact, the true “intended gathering place” for
Mormons, rather than Utah.

The group of
approximately 90 followers had left Independence, Missouri, in the summer of
1850, but when they arrived in the New Mexico Territory, the party split, with
Brewster’s faction taking the route to Santa Fe and then south to Socorro, and
Royce Oatman leading a group to Socorro and then over to Tucson.

When the Oatman-led
party approached Maricopa Wells, in modern-day Maricopa County, Arizona, they
were warned that the southwestern trail ahead was barren and dangerous. In
addition the native tribes in the region were famously violent toward whites.
To continue, it was made clear, was to risk one’s life.

The other families
elected to stay in Maricopa Wells until they had recuperated enough to make the
journey, but Royce Oatman chose to press on. And that’s how
Royce, his wife Mary, and their seven children, aged 1 to 17, found themselves
trekking through the most arid part of the Sonora Desert on their own.About 90 miles east
of Yuma, on the banks of the Gila River, the family was waylaid by a group of
Native Americans, likely Yavapai, who asked for food and tobacco. The details
of what happened next aren’t known, but the encounter somehow turned into an
attack. Apparently, all of the Oatmans were murdered— except Lorenzo, age 15,
who was beaten unconscious and left for dead.However, Lorenzo
was very much alive and upon awakening found six bodies, not eight. Two of his
sisters, 14-year-old Olive and 7-year-old Mary Ann, were nowhere to be seen.
Badly injured, Lorenzo walked to a settlement and had his wounds treated and
then rejoined the group of other Mormon emigrants, who returned with the
teenager to the scene of the crime. Because the volcanic soil was rocky and
difficult to dig, it was not possible to bury the Oatmans, so cairns were built
around their bodies instead.

But where were
Olive and Mary Ann?

DEPICTION OF YAVAPAI INDIANS

The Yavapais had taken the sisters
to their village about 60 miles away, along with selected prizes from the
Oatmans’ wagon. Tied with ropes, the girls had been made to walk for several
days through the desert, which triggered serious dehydration and weakened them
in general. When they asked for water or rest, they were poked with lances and
forced to keep walking. Once they reached the Yavapai village, the girls were
treated as slaves, and made to forage for food and firewood. The tribe’s children
would burn them with smoldering sticks while they worked, and they were often
beaten. The girls, Olive said later, were sure they’d be killed.

MARKED CHIEF OF YAVAPAI

The girls lived as the
Yavapai servants for approximately a year, until some members of the
Mohave tribe, with whom the group traded, stopped by one day and expressed
interest in Olive and Mary Ann. The Yavapai swapped them for horses, blankets,
vegetables, and an assortment of trinkets. Once the deal was settled, the
sisters were again made to walk for several days through the desert, this time
north to the Mohave village, near the not-yet-founded city of Needles,
California, and unsure of their fates all the while.

Their lives
improved significantly once the girls were on Mohave land. Mary Ann and Olive were taken in straight away by the
family of a tribal leader, Espanesay, and adopted as members of the community.
Both children had their chins and upper arms tattooed with blue cactus ink in
thick lines, like everybody else in the tribe, to ensure that they’d be
recognized as tribal members in the afterlife.

MOHAVE GIRL

The scenery was
upgraded, too. The Mohave village was located in an idyllic valley lined with
cottonwoods and willows, set along the Colorado River. No longer slaves, they
were not forced to work and could to do as they pleased. They were also
given land and seeds to raise their own crops. The two sisters were
also given their clan’s name, Oach, and they formed strong bonds with the
wife and daughter of their adopted family, Aespaneo and Topeka, respectively.
For the rest of her life, Olive spoke of the two women with great affection,
saying that she and Mary Ann were raised by them as their own daughters.

The girls seemingly
considered themselves assimilated Mohaves, so much so that, in February of
1854, approximately 200 white railroad surveyors spent a week with the Mohaves
as part of the Whipple Expedition, trading and socializing, and neither Olive
nor Mary Ann revealed herself as an abducted white female or asked the men for
help.

A few years after their
initial capture, a drought in the Southwest caused a major crop shortage and
Mary Ann subsequently starved to death, along with many others in the Mohave
tribe. She was approximately 10 years old. Olive later said she only made it
through the famine herself because she was specifically cared for by Aespaneo,
her foster mother, who fed her in secret while the rest of the village went
hungry.

In 1855, Authorities at Fort Yuma had heard rumors about a young
white woman living with the Mohaves. They sent Francisco, a member
of the nearby Quechan tribe, to the Mohave village with a
message from the federal government of the United States. The post commander
was asking them to either return her or explain why she would choose not to
return. The Mohaves first refused to respond, and then sequestered Olive to
keep her out of sight. Next, they tried denying she was white. When this didn’t
work, they began to weigh their affection for Olive against their fear of
reprisal by the U.S. government, which had threatened (via Francisco) to
destroy the tribe if Olive was not handed over.

Francisco, as the
middleman, was concerned for his neighboring tribe’s safety—and possibly his
own—and persisted in his attempts. The negotiations were lengthy
and included Olive herself at some points. As she was quoted in one
later account of her ordeal:

“I found that they had told Francisco that
I was not an American, that I was from a race of people much like the Indians,
living away from the setting sun. They had painted my face, and feet, and hands
of a dun, dingy color, unlike that of any race I ever saw. This they told
me they did to deceive Francisco; and that I must not talk to him in English.
They told me to talk to him in another language, and to tell him that I
was not an American. They then waited to hear the result, expecting to hear my
gibberish nonsense, and to witness the convincing effect upon Francisco. But
I spoke to him in broken English, and told him the truth, and also what
they had enjoined me to do. He started from his seat in a perfect rage, vowing
that he would be imposed upon no longer.”

Some of the Mohaves
were furious with Olive for disobeying orders and went as far as to suggest
that she should be killed as punishment. But her foster family opposed the
idea, and Francisco and the Mohaves eventually hammered out an offer: Olive
would be ransomed back to the U.S. government in exchange for a horse and some
blankets and beads. Olive’s adoptive sister, 17-year-old Topeka, would join her
on the trek to ensure the goods were handed over.

The journey to Fort
Yuma took 20 days, and the party arrived there on February 22, 1856. When she
was approached by the fort’s commander, Olive cried into her hands. Before she
was permitted to enter the fort, she was loaned a Western-style dress by an
officer’s wife, as she and Topeka arrived wearing only traditional Mohave
skirts, with their chests bare. She was also made to wash her painted face as
well as her hair, which was dyed with the black sap of a mesquite tree. When
asked her given name, she said it was “Olivino,” and told the commander that
she was 11 when abducted by the Yavapai, not 14, among other incorrect details.
Once she was cleaned up, Olive was received by a cheering crowd.

By the time Olive was
sent to Fort Yuma, five years had passed since the murder of most of the Oatman
family and the girls’ initial capture. She was soon informed that her brother,
Lorenzo, had also survived the massacre; they met soon after, with newspapers
across the western U.S. reporting the event as headline news.

There’s more to Olive
Oatman’s story, as she eventually married John Brant Fairchild and lived in
Sherman, Texas. However, the marks on her face affected her the rest of her
life. She was a troubled, insecure woman who often tried to hide her markings,
and even refused to leave her home. However, she did take part on a lecture
circuit to tell of her life with the Yavapais. Her story seemed to have been
altered over time and at times, she gave incorrect facts of people and events.

Fantastic post, Celia. I always so enjoy the tales you share, but this one really went straight to my heart. How that young girl tolerated such treatment and being pulled away from another type of life entirely is remarkable. Endurance, steadfast, all sorts of words come to mind to describe what a brave and strong woman she was mentally and physically. Thank you.

Beverly--it seems obvious that her traumatic life caused some memory lapses, don't you think?. Since she couldn't recall some facts or stated them differently, I think we see truly, that she was brave and strong. Doesn't it make you wonder if you could survive such an ordeal? I don't think I'd last a day!!! Thanks for your comments--I agree, it is heart-rending.

What amazes me is the research they put into Hell On Wheels. I never would have thought Eva was patterned after a real woman. Odd that the tattoo showed her price, much like the computerized codes for pricing look today.It sounds as if Olive would have been happier if she could have returned to her tribe the way Eva did in the TV series.This was such an interesting article, Celia. I loved reading it.

This was a very interesting article. Thank you for writing it. I leaned a new piece of history and am going to read more. After reading this, I understand Eva's character from Hell on Wheels better. Young Olive and her sister were brave girls and Olive was a survivor. This is a wonderful lesson for the young girls of today.

Probably Olive was young enough--15--to not fully comprehend how very horrible her life would be. It's hard to tell, but yes, she was definitely strong to keep going and to keep her little sister going, too. She was a pretty woman--the markings? I got used to them watching Eva on HOW for six years. And yes, thought they were somewhat attractive. How strange. Glad you enjoyed the post and the photos.Thanks!